Thank you so much for coming up and visiting us. Your visits allow us to go out on "dates" and give us a little bit of time to just be a couple again. Your consistant every 2-3 weeks visit lets us know how much you care and reminds us of how fast Alex is growing up because you see differences in him each time you come up. You've also helped us around the house and helped us in ways I can't even explain. I've also learned more about myself as a baby and how things were when you were a young mother. Your excitement for canning pears, peaches and apricots has helped me learn about canning and remember eating the canned fruits and veggies as a child. I want Alex to grow up with home canned goods, too.

We've been taking Alex in the hot tub for a week or two and he LOVES it! We asked the pediatrician and she said it was OK as long as the temperature was turned down. We don't every have it up too high anyways. It's set to 100 or 101... She said that if we were hot - then it was time for Alex to get out becuase he was probably hot.

He loves it so much that we decided to have them go in the daytime (Saturday) so that we could take some pictures. Note the cute swim shorts on Alex!

We go in all together a couple of nights a week and just love it. We are looking forward to the swimming lessons (aka parent swimming lessons - how to handle a baby in the water) that we will hopefully do in January.

Alex is sick AGAIN. He had to come home from daycare this morning becuase we decided to send him off... even though we knew there would be a 99% chance we'd get a call saying that he needed to be picked up. Last time this happened I stayed home with Alex, but pretty quickly he was feeling like his spunky self - and I had to drive to Renton, then on to work in Bothell. So, needless to say, we sent him off.

He has a fever of 102.6, lethargic and very whiney and cranky. Lance said that he would take care of him Monday becuase he needed to be at work on Tuesday.

Alex has to be without medicine and without fever for 24 hours before returning to daycare.

Maybe Wednesday?

Today when I got home from work - Alex was asleep on Lance's chest in the recliner - his usual place. We call it the secret weapon - or "daddy medicine". He loves to sleep on Lance's chest when he is wearing one of his 49ers fleece shirts. Oh so nice and comfy.

Lance fed him his last bottle right after I got home and we learned that Alex can hold his own bottle - we never feed him a bottle anymore and we don't know this! It's new to us!

Lance looked at me and said "It's times like this that I love being a Dad". I couldn't say anything because then Alex would know that I was there and would whip his head around looking for me and bottle time would be over. I just smiled and warmth filled my heart.

Daddy medicine is wonderful.

I remember my Mom used to say to my sister and I that she loved when we were sick because then she could kiss and snuggle us - or that we would actually let her instead of resisting. Alex isn't to the resisting stage yet but Lance sure was loving every minute of it.

I think that is the best part of this whole situation - - - Lance knowing and realizing that Alex just wants to be with him and that he wants to be with Alex to take care of him in his time of need. Being in the moment and knowing it.

Alex is starting to know his name! Most of the time we call him by his many many nicknames.

Thank goodness daycare calls him Alex!

It's totally amazing how far he has come in 7 months!

Now that we've noticed this - we are trying to call him by his name more often. Bad parents - bad parents! When we feed him, when we are trying to wrestle a change of clothes or diapers or when we are playing.

Here is a close up of Alex's teeth. What little chompers he has! He has bitten me three times (ouch!) and this last time I made an effort to be really loud and tell him that it's not nice to bite Mama.

This must have been a very popular weekend - crisp fall air with sunshine so that it was warm in the sun.

There were goats, tons of pumpkins and gourds of all kinds along with flowers and lots of people. There is a corn maze along with hayrides. We didn't do anything except take some wonderful photos of Alex amongst the pumpkins. He was mezmerized by the pumpkins, all the people and the sun. All this added up to pictures where he's not looking at the camera! Hopefully we'll try again later. He also wasn't feeling good this weekend (fever, cranky, tired but not wanting to sleep, not hungry - - - flu?) - so, maybe that was it.

We all knew that layoffs were coming. I got my electronic and paper files in order. Moved documents and work I was working on to a server so that my group could access it all if needed. I made a list of all the items I needed to remember in case my name was called so that in the short timeframe of the notice - I would be able to remember what I needed to do. I cleaned out a lot of my personal items off my desk and took it all home.

If it was me - I would be ready.

We knew it was happening today since HR had booked conference rooms marked "hold" and all the big wigs were in meetings on Tuesday afternoon. Also, a seminar for Wednesday morning was cancelled.

This morning when I arrived... it was pretty quiet. Not many people were around. I waited at my computer nervously of what today would bring. Everytime the door to our cubicle area would open... my heart would stop and I would turn to look at who it was. If it was just an office-mate, then my breath would slowly return until the next time.

Wait

Wait

Wait

Finally I couldn't stand it any longer and went into the lab. My boss came and found a few of us and told us all that we were "safe" and that nobody in our group was affected.

One of my friends that was laid off and she was wonderful. I hope she pursues her dream of a catering business. We would take walks together and have chats about food and recipes.

Another co-worker that was laid off came into our office to say goodbye. He has a son named Alex, too, that is 3 years old. He said to me "have fun with your Alex" and that is where I lost it. Tears welled up in my eyes and I felt so sorry for him. I know that he is going to be OK, as well. He was an excellent co-worker and I hope will find work soon. The severence package is very nice, so that makes everybody feel better, too. It includes health insurance for 14 months.

After all the dust had settled - we lost 7 people out of 46 in the department. I heard 21 in my location and 37 in the Seattle location.

We bought a new carseat from Tiny Ride for our little boy - a Britax Marathon convertible carseat. We went to BabiesRUs to test things out and actually touch all the options. They also let us take it out to the car to make sure it fit. We felt good about our decision when we left and thought we could get a better price.

We sure did!

It saved us $40 and we got to choose the color vs. only 1 color at BabiesRUs.

Alex is 28" tall now and we only had one more inch to go before he grew out of his infant car seat. Plus, he's getting so heavy and squirmy that we don't use the infant carseat feature where you take out the whole seat and carry it along with you. And haven't for a while!

It arrived on Monday and looks beautiful! We will install it in the car this weekend.

People sometimes ask when he will ride foward facing. Please watch this video YouTube video that uses crash test babies and has facts that shows why babies should ride rear facing as long as possible. It is a really great video.

Fall is here and I feel like making some homeade chunky applesauce or creamy pumpkin pie. Or curling up with a good book on the couch while wrapped in a warm blanket. Or slow cooking some stew or soup and eating it with a crunchy bread to dip in it.

ha ha ha

ha ha ha ha

ha ha ha

lounging on the couch with a baby in the house?

What we did do this weekend: We took a walk this weekend to see if the salmon were up here yet - but, no salmon yet. View Salmon sites here We live near the Tolt pipeline trail and we used to walk on it all the time (before some little person came along) with the dogs. It was nice to be back on the trail and see the things that had changed and the fall colors.

It's funny ---- because EVERYONE says that Alex looks like Lance and I even have compared pictures of when Lance was a baby. They look very much alike. When I get my hands on some pics of us as babies - I will post and you will see the similarities. It's astounding!

As we all know... Alex loves to stand. He will stand any chance he gets. Here is a picture of him "standing" using the jungle gym as his brace. He really does it! And loves to do it for long periods of time. We get his feet in a good position along with his hands holding just the right spot on the jungle gym - and there he is. He looks around in wonder thinking "I can't believe I'm standing... this is sooooo cool!"

Alex is having a time of rapid developments. So much so that it is hard to keep up with him! He is just starting to be able to sit up for a short while (10 sec?) on his own. It also helps that he has the carpet to grab on to. Once we get him into position - and he's "in the mood" to sit up - there he is!

I was glad to be able to take this picture without him falling over and then crying.